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Exercise pill for sofa athletes

AN “exercise pill” that could allow couch potatoes to build muscle and burn fat without getting up from the sofa is being tested on patients.

The drug is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline to treat high cholesterol but has also been shown to reduce weight gain dramatically in mice, even when they are fed a high-fat diet, and turn them into marathon runners.

The drug, known as GW 501516, is being tested on patients to find if it can successfully improve their good HDL cholesterol.

The discovery, made by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, could lead to a quick fix for obesity as well as preventing associated disorders such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The Californian team discovered that activation of a protein called PPAR-delta speeds up the metabolism, increasing the rate at which the body burns fat.